One of my many “therapists” who came into the hospital room.
Well.
That was different.
It’s one thing to waste time. Save time. Time to stand still.
I’m making up for lost time.
Literally.
I seem to have misplaced about four hours last week. Oh, I lived it. And was pretty agitated about it. I just can’t remember it.
TIA, they called it. Which led to an MRI, an EEG, and a hospital with a big FEE.
I crack myself up.
That was not exactly how I had planned my day to be. But life – and LifeVesting – has a way of throwing curves. And those curveball experiences are their own version of sowing and reaping.
Let’s start with the reaping. [click to continue…]
Lately it feels as though you’re doing a tightrope dance with the devil himself. He seduces you like an angel of light in one ear and shames you for all your failures in the other. Your life feels, even smells like a sulfurous war zone and it sure seems as though the casualties are piling up. But in the quake and the fury, there’s one and only one thing you need to know…
God’s got this. All you have to do is trust Him. And say “thank you.”
Like a broken cash register, your money drawer only seems to open when it time to shell it out to somebody else. From disaster salesmen to debt collectors, everybody’s standing with an outstretched hand. There’s always another reason to fret over this thing called The Economy, and even a box of Girl Scout cookies feels like a sacrificial charitable donation. But in the fear and loathing-, there’s one and only one thing you need to know…
God’s got this. All you have to do is trust Him. And say “thank you.” [click to continue…]
by Andy Wood on November 18, 2013
in Spoofs
December 1944. The 101st Airborne, under the command of General Anthony McAuliffe, held the little town of Bastogne, Belgium, “at all costs” under siege by the German army. On the morning of December 22, four Germans came up the road carrying a white flag. Everybody hoped they were offering to surrender. Instead, they presented an ultimatum from the German commander: “the honorable surrender of the encircled town.”
McAuliffe glanced at the message and said, “Aw, nuts!”
A sergeant sent the one-word reply and the rest is profound military history.
What we didn’t know until today is that McAuliffe was actually saying he missed those mixed nuts his mama used to make and have out for all the company at Christmas time.
That’s the power of Turkey Nuts®, friends. They can change history. (Or at least try to rewrite it.)
And now, for the first time ever, the LifeVesting Culinary Institute is making available our own patented recipe. And because this information is so potentially beneficial to you, we are offering it as investment in your health, absolutely free of charge.
You’re welcome. [click to continue…]
Know what’s always messed me up with New Year’s resolutions? New Year’s Day is a holiday. So all those goals and new beginnings typically start around January 2 and I’m already a day behind. Then I need to put up Christmas stuff and I’m two days behind. I’m getting tired just thinking about it. So I need some mental rest from the holidays. Three days behind.
So this year I brightened up and decided that this will take a bit more planning and thought. And yes, I’m talking slap-dab in the middle of the Christmas holidays.
So I’m writing this to myself, but inviting you to come along for the fun. Here are ten suggestions to prepare for the coming year – do all these by December 31, and you can have New Year’s Day off. I know, I know! You’re welcome! Click here to get started
(Something of a “life lessons year in review,” in no certain order. I’d love to hear yours. Feel free to add your own in the comments section.)
1. How awesome your cancer surgeon is.
2. How nice people can be, even when you wish they would just hate you.
3. How God provides, even sometimes for fools.
4. The sun really does come out tomorrow.
5. How to spell “aneurysm.”
6. Life goes on, with you or without you.
7. Contrary to the words to the MASH theme, suicide is NOT painless.
8. Failure doesn’t stop people from loving you.
9. Rejection does not come with a cocoon to wrap you away for a while.
10. Nobody is more committed to your success than you are. [click to continue…]
Can we talk about The Elephant in the Room?
Most of the time we use the phrase to describe the unspoken but obvious thing between two or more people that no one is talking about. There’s a different elephant, however, that I want to explore.
It’s the one in your head.
I don’t know what yours is doing, but the elephant my head likes to dance. Badly.
The Elephant in Your Head is the one or two things that appear in every mental photo. The two or three things that interrupt – albeit silently – any patterns of forward thinking.
What do you do when you’re the elephant in the room? [click to continue…]
“I feel like a man with three dollars in my pocket. Maybe a quart in my tank. And what astounds me is how quickly I think about spending what little I have. I get a little bit back in my soul and I start thinking about advancing the Kingdom. People that need my help. I get a little bit of God back in my tank and I start thinking about who I need to pray for. Lord have mercy” (John Eldridge)
+++++++
Hi, I’m Andy, and I’m a fumaholic.
(All: “Hi Andy!”)
I’m really glad to be here tonight to share my experience, strength and hope with you. The First Step says that “we admitted we were powerless over our fumaholism, and that our lives had become unmanageable.” So tonight I thought I would share how my life got to that place.
I’d like to start with a couple of confessions… that is okay in a place like this, isn’t it?
(Room erupts with raucous laughter) [click to continue…]
We pass a word around our office that my associate once used to describe me, and it stuck: Crispy.
He used it a few years ago when he and our office manager decided they’d seen enough of me in the state I was in and informed me that I was taking my wife on an R & R trip to the mountains. My reservations had been made, and they weren’t taking “no” for an answer.
I hope to God you have somebody who looks out for you like that. I wasn’t aware of how emotionally and physically fried I was. The sad truth about stress, crispiness, and burnout is that often others see their effects on us before we do.
It wasn’t the first time I’ve been crispy, and it probably won’t be the last. But there’s a further step that can be devastating. Burnout, in a clinical sense, means you have completely exhausted every form of energy necessary to continue. More than just losing interest (“I’m sort of burned out on jazz these days”), I’m talking about those times people go to their wells and find them completely dry. Times when people shock those who know them best by walking away from relationships, careers, or wisdom.
“Stress makes people stupid,” a management consultant once told Daniel Goldman. Burnout reveals it to the world.
So how do people get in such a state – past stress, past crispy, all the way to emotionally nuked? Let me suggest three quick and easy recipes for complete emotional, mental, or spiritual exhaustion: [click to continue…]
by Andy Wood on April 23, 2008
in Allocating Your Resources, Consumers, Enlarging Your Capacity, Executing Your Plan, Five LV Laws, Life Currency, LV Alter-egos, LV Cycle, Money, Principle of Increase, Time
I mentioned in my previous post that it’s possible to live in such a way that laughs at the future. Just so we’re clear, we’re in “life hack” territory. We’re talking about what to do with your money, your time, your relationships, your attitudes, and your spirit.
Look at this biblical description:
“She is clothed with strength and dignity, and she laughs without fear of the future.” (Proverbs 31:25)
What is it about this woman that put her in a place where she wasn’t wringing her hands every time somebody predicted the end of life as we know it?
1. Establish trust in those who know you best.
“Her husband can trust her, and she will greatly enrich his life. She brings him good, not harm,all the days of her life” (v. 11-12, NLT).
For years I assumed that her husband trusted her in a moral sense, but this is much deeper. This man trusted her with his business, his family, and his money. She had earned his trust. How? By adding value to his life.
By doing a little more, being faithful to tasks assigned, or by keeping the trust of those who know you best, you create a compelling future. Take it from somebody who has both earned and betrayed trust: it takes months and years to earn trust, and you can destroy it – and your confidence in the future – in a matter of minutes.
2. Buy like an investor, not like a consumer.
[click to continue…]
